Over the bank holiday weekend, I thought I'd take a look at my fuel pump due to priming issues, so I removed the base carpet and spotted a bit of surface rust around the wiring gromit and the fuel pump cover, no worries, just a dab of rust preventer an we'll be all sorted. I'll just give the boot a wipe whilst the carpet is out. I thought, good job I did! I found 3 panel holes that were letting in moisture. Tell-tail dirty streaks plus rust around the edges of the holes. Further to that as I got further into the task (removing side carpet panels), I discovered bubbling of the paint just coming out from under the sealant that joins the inner wheelarch pannel to the boot floor. I decided to investigate further..........

Part 2 tonight.

Ross,
What are you doing with dirty steaks in your boot and how come you found that we all had some at the Tribute Rally?!
Seriously, this will run and run- it's the start of the perennial sleepless nights that I had 30 years ago when deeply into Triumph Vitesse ownership!

They're all rusting now, unless you live in a hot climate

Oh dear... I've been waiting for this one. I also have some seriously dirty steaks ( ) in my boot. The Tribute Rally was a very good day apart from finding out the the rear end of my Coupe was about to fall off. Mine was the worst there; some serious ingress of Fe3O4 above the rear wheel arches in the boot.

Just waiting for the next installment. Come on Ross, give me your worst

Sorted my minor issues although only inside the boot. Something else to worry about. Could it be from water in the boot area as I had a grommit missing on the rear floor plan by lights?

The boot in my coupe had what initially appeared to be some surface rust under the joint sealant. The true extent was somewhat worse when I started prodding and tapping around with a screwdriver! Mind you, it was nothing that couldn't be put right thanks to some quality cutting out and welding by one of our friendly specialists (thanks Joe)..

Although it's not nice finding rust, it is better found now and the full extent exposed so that it can be dealt with before it gets any worse.

Yep

Mine's going in for welding on one of the rear jacking points at the end of the week, amongst a couple of other things

Part 2

So I started to dig the mastic out with a flat bladed screwdriver (effective method) off-side first, then nearside. It came out very easily due to the fact it was bonded onto a very loose surface, RUST!
I was very surprised at the extent of the rot as from the outside bar a small amount of bubbling, (not noticed before) there were no sign of rust around the join/seam at all. see pic below. It also shows the small hole that lets in some moisture.

-----------

This is the after pic, having removed all loose rust crust and wire brushed. (to keep the wire brush scratching to a minimum, I used one of those narrow red handled ones and before use, I hammered it even narrower, just right )
The off-side seemed worse for some reason there is an area 2/3 the way along the inner wheel arch that seem the worst area. I was able to push the screwdriver through the weak steel! but as you can see from the pic the rust is equally as bad as the other side under the panel seal.

All areas have now been treated with Granville Rust Converter as a temporary measure to stop it for the time being. Allowing me to investigate further on the outside/underside to see what is going on before I make a plan of action.

There was also a hole above the fuel pump/sender hatch which was letting water in too.

The final area in the boot to get sorted was a small area under the tail lights on the near side. For whatever reason the rust has just appeared there with no prior damage or surface disturbance.

All the leaky holes will be masticed up and the rust probably be cut out and new angle beads welded in, in their place, then re-sealed and sprayed. That's the plan!?

Over last weekend at the Pininfarina Show, I looked at probably 6-7 Coupe boot seam seals and every single one had rust issues to a greater or lesser degree
So PLEASE, everyone, go out with a torch lift up your boot carpets and side trims and have a good look and a prod. Caught now, it's an easy-ish fix. left to rot it will mean an MOT failure and a lot of welding. if not the end of your belove-ed.

P.S. This effects all models of the coupe! Rust does not disciminate

If anybody else has any other RUST issues it might be worth having a dedicated thread secion? in "General Maintenance" to add all findings together to try and make a catalogue of the places to keep an eye on. All our coops are getting more mature and their sure to get more rusty

AS might be expected, given that mine has been seriously shunted up the arse not once but twice, mine has rust in all those same places; probably bad enough to fail the next MOT.

Other places you might find chassis rust are just inboard of the sills, particularly where the floor rises to support the rear seat. Also - Joe assures me this is repairable - the heavy plates that form the inside of the suspension towers. Take the wheel off and look what's hiding behind the shockers!

I will get out tonight and have a look at the other two....

So will i

So have you looked yet? Go on I dare you.........

Wait until you all look in the inside sill that houses the front seat belt tensioner.

The rear inner rust in boot sealant often rusts through to the wheel arch under the plastic liners. I have seen someones yellow coop in the coop restoration thread wisely cut it out from the wheel arch side.

There are also left and right drainage holes from the outer boot recess slam pannel that run down behind the bumper and the drainage hole is only 1" below a bulkhead hole that only has some foam over it so if there is any gunk/moss etc build up and any substantial amount of water is poured down it builds up like a sink and while escaping some flows into the boot. I think people who wash their car a lot and pour full buckets on the rear probably get this worse! If you remove the rear bumper you can clean out the drainnage whole with a long bit of wire from the side.

Just use this as an excuse to make you coop more rust proof than it was built. I have had this issue as well but this excellent forum and there is nowhere to go from the coop unless you spend a lot of money make me keep the car.

Says smugly ... (for now, until I find some) .. Yes, I have and I don't have any rust!

Looked in the boot and around all the wheel arches and it's almost as good as the day it was made. No rust, not even a bubble or two.

Even under the bonnet, I only have surface rust; a bit of flaking paint on the bonnet release panel and some by the horns, but I usually try and keep those areas treated and painted, so fingers crossed.

It's probably because I now keep it covered in Winter and I think that was the case in the past before I bought it.

Paul, just checked the boot of your old Sprinty. More paint than the outside and no rust....

Just need to check the Scottie now, after I've charged up my pacemaker

Thanks for the heads up on other areas of concern t0m0
That's what this thread is all about, letting people know where to look and inspect for future problems. Anybody else wish to post their observations?

I checked the boot area in the Scottie today and I could find no evidence of corrosion; only 26p in change that must have fallen out of my sports bag. Is it my imagination, or do the later models tend to have more corrosion issues? I've also heard that certain Coupe colours have more issues than others.... any opinions on this?

The above is with the arch liner off


The above as you can see is daylight showing through the floor.

Seeing this now prob 1 in 20 coupes.

Check your arse end for holes folks.

JBT, I have checked my arse end. No hole............ It seems to have moved to the front and side ;-)

Checked mine, all OK. So was the rear 1/4 panels. I've Dinitrol'd everywhere for protection in the future. BUT I do have some tin worn on the underside of the car, as the rear subframe needs replacing it will all be sorted at the same time. Hopefully that'll be that for years to come

Don't worry mate,in time the boot will be back to its normal self.
Just don't poke it in mean time

Any ideas of the cause of this ?

Haha. Wise words JBT

What rust? H2O + O2 normally does for naked steel.
Shite getting trapped between the inner wheel arch panel and the boot floor pan means a moisture trap, plus slight abrasion/spot welds, I would have thought

thank you, I must of missed primary school chemistry

I'm not convinced. The Bravos of a similar age don't go there. I was wondering if it was maybe a work hardening caused by flex that sets it of.